Rik Snowley

by maggie

I’ve just got back from the private view of an acquaintance’s MA in Photography. It was curious. Mostly because I knew his first photography teacher reasonably well. Rik taught City and Guilds photography, at adult education, and a class called Dark Room Magic. I never took any of his courses, but I kind of wish I had done back in the day. He loved making special effects in the dark room, mixing up his own cyanotypes all sorts of difficult to source chemicals. He’d take off for the day and fiddle with his pin hole camera in famous cemeteries… and of course come back with a story or too.

He told great tales. Few of them are repeatable… *

Here are a couple of images of his, that I’ve had kicking around.

Rik took a road trip across the US as a young man. Formative times I hear.There’s still a fridge full of undeveloped films lurking out there waiting.

And a low key hair cut too.

You can tell the kind of guy he was, by that fact he sends you a birthday card with his mug shot on.

We still miss you Rik, we haven’t forgotten you.

*Who can forget the woman with a face like a bag of spanners. Or how to play Pecking and Drinking…

A large print of his is currently gracing the bottom of Sarah’s stairs. So some of his work is out in the world. It was good to meet up with some of his minions yesterday. I’m severely tempted to take my SLR to Lundy now…